Assimilated by the Borg, Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) is brought face to face with the Borg Queen (Susanna Thompson). Determined to eradicate the "individuality" virus that Janeway has injected into the collective, the Queen gives Janeway an ultimatum: persuade the freed Borg to return to the Queen's control or see millions of innocent drones put to death to cleanse the collective of Janeway's actions.
Special Agent Matti
The best Part II to a Part I ever.
The ongoing battle between Janeway and the Borg Queen is taken to a higher level as the Starfleet Captain defeats her rival by wits alone. It's the ultimate battle of chaotic individuality over regimented computing power. Not to mention which the Queen gets really pissed because she isn't as good as Katherine. And she knows it. Katherine is a potential replacement for the Lady of Species 125. Think about it: disciplined, strong-willed, resistant, intelligent, female... Katherine would make a better Human representative than Jean-Luc.
But the best part of Unimatrix 0 II is that there's no happy ending. Foregoing the Hollywood tradition of solving everyone's problems in the last five minutes of the episode, this time, none of the problems are solved to anyone's satisfaction. The Borg eliminate Unimatrix 0 at the cost of having liberated drones running amok throughout the collective. Seven overcomes her fear of a relationship with Axum only to discover that he's on the other side of the galaxy. Janeway frees the thousands of affected drones at the cost of millions. Janeway, Torres and Tuvok are freed from the collective but have to live with Borg technology in their bodies... cool!
Meanwhile, Susannah is becoming more and more erratic in her portrayal of the Queen, but in a good way. The coldly supercilious bitch from Dark frontier has realised that she is not so superior after all and must fight tooth and nail to preserve her ego. Every compromise away from Borg Perfection™ and toward the Janeway Way™ is a crack in the foundation of her authority. Susanna presents a descent into Hell in a disarmingly bestial manner.
The regular cast are all solid in their performances. Despite varying levels of involvement, each one gets a moment to shine. Unimatrix 0 II lets them all push their characters beyond the comfort zone, a rare thing and a good thing in my opinion. I particularly liked Kate's hologram. It had just the right measure of Borg blandness and Human intensity. Yay.
And remember: there are no victories, only the cessation of hostility.
PG (Low level violence, supernatural themes)
VHS rental and retail: 9 March 2001